Telecommunication service providers typically provide numerous voice and data services to end users (also referred to as subscribers of a telecommunication network). Some examples of voice services include voice calls, call forwarding, call waiting, etc. Some examples of data services include messaging, streaming audio/video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), online gaming, and IP-TV. The data services are managed by a Packet Core network of a telecommunications provider, which interfaces the end user with external Packet Data Networks (PDN), such as the Internet. Some examples of Packet Core networks include General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) core network, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, etc. Mobile devices, such as cell phones, personal data assistants, smart phones, notebook computers, etc., may access the voice or data services of a telecommunication network via an over the air interface with one or more base stations.
Telecommunication service providers use offline and online charging systems to keep track of the resource/services usage incurred by each subscriber user device of the telecommunication network. The 3GPP/3GPP2 standards groups have defined a set of specifications that may be used to implement online charging systems and offline charging systems in the various network domains (e.g., a circuit-switched domain, a packet-switched domain, and/or a wireless domain), IP multimedia subsystems, and emerging 3G/OMA application services.
As provided in 3GPP TS 32.240, offline charging is defined as a group of functions where charging information for network resource usage is collected concurrently with the resource usage. An Offline Charging System (OFCS) of the telecommunication network processes charging information through a chain of charging functions that are part of the OFCS, which results in the generation of Charging Data Record (CDR) files that are transferred from the OFCS to the network operator's Billing Domain for subscriber billing and/or inter-operator accounting. Charging information is provided by a Charging Trigger Function (CTF) that is implemented in a network element (NE) configured to provide services to a subscriber via the telecommunications network. The CTF collects charging information pertaining to chargeable events associated with various services provided by the telecommunications network to the subscriber's user device, assembles this information into matching charging messages, and sends the charging messages to the OFCS, which processes the information and generates CDRs that are sent to the billing domain.
However, a number of constraints may limit or reduce the performance of the OFCS in processing charging information received from CTFs connected to the OFCS. A constraint or strain in the resources used to implement one or more functions implemented in the OFCS can often have an adverse effect on being able to generate complete CDRs for services enabled by one or more Network Elements, which, in turn, typically results in significant potential revenue leakage for the telecommunication network provider. Thus, systems and methods that aid and/or improve the recovery process of an OFCS that is experiencing or about to experience a resource constraint are desirable.